***UPDTAED 2013 August, 28th *** Translated from Catalan to English:When a book makes you think.Disguised as an endearing story, sweet and juicy as a ripe summer peach, “Sostiene Pereira" is a novel that will remain in your thoughts for some time after you've turned the last page.Pereira is an u...
تريستانو يحتضر: العبث المنتهي بالحقيقة.كثيرًا ماأفكر في لحظات الاحتضار، تلك اللحظات التي نقف فيها لوحدنا، وذلك الشريط يمر علينا بأحداث حياتنا بالكامل وليس الرواية الرسمية منها. أيهما أهم في الحياة والكتابة: الأحداث او معناها؟ ولعل من هذه السؤال، وتلك اللحظة، صدرت هذه الرواية الجميلة.في هذه الرواي...
Until the day I met Madame Huppert, I had never heard of Ikebana. I was very much on the defensive that afternoon. I had prepared myself psychologically to tell a lot of little lies if it seemed to me “promotional.” At that time I considered little lies as a necessary ingredient in order to appea...
– don’t lose the thread – writers mustn’t lose the thread, otherwise they get off too easy, a jump in the story, an empty place … it’s a mystery, people will say, the mystery of things … or there’s no real conclusion, because you can’t unravel the knot, and then … open-ended, and problem solved. ...
Privately, Fra Giovanni of Fiesole still thought of himself as Guidolino, the name he had left behind in the world when he came to the cloister. He was in the vegetable garden gathering onions, which was his job, since in abandoning the world he hadn’t wanted to abandon the vocation of his father...
He spoke perfect Portuguese and when I told him my name he smiled broadly nodding his head back and forth, apparently very pleased to see me. He explained that the prior was taking vespers and had asked me to please wait for him in the library. He handed me a note which read: Welcome to Goa. I’ll...
was called on to perform in this book. Were someone to ask me why I wrote this story in Portuguese, I would answer simply that a story like this could only be written in Portuguese; it’s as simple as that. But there is something else that needs explaining. Strictly speaking, a Requiem should be w...
A little bit’s still there, except the young part, he answered.” The old professor had stopped talking, his expression almost contrite, he’d swiped away a tear that had welled up on his eyelashes, tapped himself on the forehead as if to say how stupid of me, would you pardon me, tugged at his inc...